Agincourt By Bernard Cromwell

Agincourt
by Bernard Cromwell

Genre: Historical Fiction

Agincourt follows the life of Nick Hook, an English archer who, through a series of incredibly unlucky events, finds himself fighting with the King of England as he invades France. This book is historical fiction at its best. Bernard Cromwell recreates the era with wonderful description and with absolutely brutal realism. Several times while reading this story I had the intense mix of wanting to stop and continue.

Bernard Cromwell does use real people of the time for the story but his fictional characters are incredible. If you read this book and do not hate Sir Martin by the end of it, I would question you morals. Sir Martin is by far the most slimy, sinister character I’ve ever encountered. The conflict between Sir Martin and Nick Hook will keep you reading until the very end.
The pace of the book is perfect. It spreads the action out just right. If any writer wants to know how to write battles, then read Bernard Cromwell’s work. The sieges and battles in Agincourt are amazing, the detail is mind blowing. Cromwell switches between characters to bring the battles to life from all perspectives.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great story and history.
Also a warning this book will make you want to shoot a long bow, just a hazard everyone should know about.

The Bookie Monster's Rating:

Agincourt, fought on October 25th 1415, St Crispin's Day, is one of England’s best-known battles, in part through the brilliant depiction of it in Shakespeare's Henry V, in part because it was a brilliant and unexpected English victory and in part because it was the first battle won by the use of the longbow - a weapon developed by the English which enabled them to dominate the European battlefields for the rest of the century.

Bernard Cornwell’s Agincourt is a vivid, breathtaking and meticulously well-researched account of this momentous battle and its aftermath. From the varying viewpoints of nobles, peasants, archers, and horsemen, Agincourt skilfully brings to life the hours of relentless fighting, the desperation of an army crippled by disease and the exceptional bravery of the English soldiers.

Bernard Cornwell was born in London, raised in Essex, and now lives mainly in the USA with his wife. In addition to the hugely successful Sharpe novels, Bernard Cornwell is the author of the Starbuck Chronicles, the Warlord trilogy, the Grail Quest series and the Alfred series.